Teslin Tinglits and Wildlife

We went to Teslin - a town of 450 people, to learn about Tinglit native life, stopping along the way for a short hike to waterfalls.

Again, our GPS is a little confused.  We didn’t really know we’d bought an off-road vehicle.

There was both a museum and a native cultural center. Canadians reference their native population as First Nation. They have many of the same challenges as faced by the United States in property rights and preservation of an ancient culture. It’s a frequent topic on Canadian news broadcasts.

The Teslin Tinglit peoples lived off the land buy fishing and fur trading. The village is located on the edge of a large lake that completely freezes in the winter.  When the ice breaks (late May) the sternwheeler would come in with supplies, mail and fur buyers. The culture completely changed in the 1940’s with the building of the Alaskan Highway.  One of the museums features the photographs taken by a Tinglit resident who recorded life in the village between the 1920’s and 1950’s.  The photographs provide an outstanding ethnographic record of their lives.

We stayed at the Teslin Provincial Campground.  During evening chores, Tom checked the tire pressure and found one a bit low, so we broke out the ‘truck rated’ tire compressor that came with the rig.  By the time we were finished with that, we’d LOST 10 pounds more of pressure.  Sooooo, we humbly made friends with the folks in the large Class A motorhome camped nearby, and they cranked up their on-board air brake capacity compressor. In short order, all tires were at the right pressure.  They did make a recommendation on the correct type of compressor for us. We’ll find one.

Lighting conditions at 10:00 p.m.  VERY bight for sleeping !

Early morning shot of our beautiful campsite - lupine wild flowers EVERYWHERE

Wildlife preserve:

We have seen wild wildlife, and wanted more, so we went to the Yukon Wildlife preserve.  It’s about 800 acres of free-range land for many animals native to the area.  We saw some that we will never see in the wild.  It was started 40 years ago as a private enterprise, and had an exclusive contract with Holland America tours.  The Yukon government eventually purchased the enterprise and opened it to the general public.  We toured with a naturalist on a hop on hop off bus.

Snowy Owl

Mule Deer:  

Lynx

Arctic fox - molting it's winter coat

Snowshoe Hare

We had seen Wood Bison at Liard several days earlier. They weigh about 2000 pounds, live 20 years, and are not the same animal as the American plains bison. The Wood Bison has taller shoulders, a different horn and hair patterns than the plains bison. They have been brought back from the brink of extinction. Their numbers dwindled to only 250 before wildlife biologists, working with the government, developed a program to create a sustainable population in areas where they had once roamed.  Between 1986 and 1992, wood bison were re-introduced to the Yukon, where they had been extinct for 200 years.  There are now about 1100 in the territory. There are no natural predators to the wood bison and are still considered a threatened species.

Next stop -Dawson City